Both boys are at an age that we see an upswing in sleepwalking in my family. (All the descendants of my great-grandparents Edwin and Isabel sleepwalk, and have night terrors). We tend to see an up swing in 1st/2nd grade, again in Middle School, and another one in University.

Contrary to another poster we do see bizarre behavior - including dog food being put in weird places like in the ice cream container in the freezer. I regularly moved all the good silver around. One cousin turned all the chairs, side tables, and coffee tables roughly 45 degrees. Kids have been found sleeping in strange places including back and front yards (now everyone has alarm systems to keep the kids indoors). Early November I was stressed out. I woke up one morning and found that I had emptied the frig and freeze in my sleep and left everything to defrost. I was not happy.

I had another thought. You said the 6-year-old was very worried about the house being haunted. Is this something new he just came up with, a recurring worry with him lately, etc.? Not that I'm thinking you really need to call Ghostbusters; but could one of the older kids have been playing with/teasing him about this during the sleepover, and tricked him into thinking that a ghost had done these things while he watched, or something? Maybe when they saw how upset he was about it during your questioning, that made them even less likely to want to confess, not more.

I was just thinking this might inform future questioning... Like, if the ghost thing came out of nowhere, maybe that means someone suggested it to the 6-year-old that night, and finding out who that was might point you towards the culprit.

So out of curiousity, do you have dreams where you are doing things (with as much sense as any dream has), and instead of the normal 'it just happens in your head' you act out your dream as well?

Also after comments about the cheesecake and sleep walking, I got to thinking about assumptions. For Dogfood, I was defaulting to wet (ICK), and inside i was thinking of like a filled cupcake - effort and neatness, and from the assumptions of the OP, done deliberately as a prank.

If it was dry food, and maybe finger pushed in, That could be 'feeding the dog' and/or 'decorating a cake', I suppose (or other things totally unrelated...maybe I should stop trying to think through the sleep-walking since I have no experience...

I had another thought. You said the 6-year-old was very worried about the house being haunted. Is this something new he just came up with, a recurring worry with him lately, etc.? Not that I'm thinking you really need to call Ghostbusters; but could one of the older kids have been playing with/teasing him about this during the sleepover, and tricked him into thinking that a ghost had done these things while he watched, or something? Maybe when they saw how upset he was about it during your questioning, that made them even less likely to want to confess, not more.

I was just thinking this might inform future questioning... Like, if the ghost thing came out of nowhere, maybe that means someone suggested it to the 6-year-old that night, and finding out who that was might point you towards the culprit.

Or maybe I've been watching too much Poirot...

No, our house is only 15 years old (we bought it last year from the original owners who had it built) and DS is not usually a scaredy cat.

That morning, when we were all trying to get to the bottom of it, one of the items that had been moved had been moved AGAIN (and once again, everyone denied doing it). It was at that time that he started to get scared that we had a ghost in the house.

Ok, I'm not even going to go the 'sleepwalking' route here, because that just seems so over the top (even for this forum) and OP said there have been several other sleepovers with no incidents or other sleepwalking tendencies.

Either one or more of the kids had a bit of fun and don't want to own up to it. It's what kids do. Thankfully, no one or nothing was seriously harmed.

When I was around 10, I was at my aunts house, and I found her contact lens case in the bathroom. I, of course, knew better than to play with it, but I was so intrigued I opened the case and one fell out. When my aunt came later and was looking for them, I knew I would get in trouble, so I lied and said I didn't know what happened to them. It was obviously me.... as the only other people in the house were my teenage cousin and the cat, but I steadfastly stood by my denial.

Since you have already mentioned it to their parents, my next step would be to decide how else I want to handle it. Do I want to ask the kids again? Do I want to say no more sleepovers until this has been resolved? Would I just try to watch the kids better next time? etc.

I don't know that I would trust them alone again, or maybe I would just let it drop, but that's a decision for you, as it's your family and you are the one with the family dynamics and kids' friendships to think about.

I wish you luck, and hope you can get this figured out! At the very least whenever you have sleepovers again, you can remind everyone to leave the dogfood out of the people food for breakfast!!

I also wondered if one of them sleepwalked, but this reminded me of this one time I got in trouble with my mother. I don't remember what I did, but I do remember that I was about ten years old and it was something stupid that seemed funny at the time. My mom wasn't sure if I did it, or if my brother did it. She promised that whoever did it would not be in trouble if they confessed, and with that promise (and feeling guilty) I confessed. I ended up being grounded with no TV for a week because she thought my tone wasn't 'remorseful enough'. Maybe whoever did it met with something like this before, and was afraid to admit what they did this time? This might be a long-shot, and probably makes no difference either way.

Hopefully this will be the end of it, and their parents will try to get the truth from the culprit instead of getting defensive.

Yeah, I don't know that I'd believe a grownup who said, "no repercussions."

I also wondered if one of them sleepwalked, but this reminded me of this one time I got in trouble with my mother. I don't remember what I did, but I do remember that I was about ten years old and it was something stupid that seemed funny at the time. My mom wasn't sure if I did it, or if my brother did it. She promised that whoever did it would not be in trouble if they confessed, and with that promise (and feeling guilty) I confessed. I ended up being grounded with no TV for a week because she thought my tone wasn't 'remorseful enough'. Maybe whoever did it met with something like this before, and was afraid to admit what they did this time? This might be a long-shot, and probably makes no difference either way.

Hopefully this will be the end of it, and their parents will try to get the truth from the culprit instead of getting defensive.

Yeah, I don't know that I'd believe a grownup who said, "no repercussions."

DH and I have that deal with our kids. We don't promise them that there will be no consequence, but it's definitely much less than if they lie and get busted later. We'll tell them "The consequence for X, if it was you, is this. If you are lying and we find out you'll not only still get that consequence but you'll be grounded off the xbox, computer and ipod for a week." So far they've always opted to be honest but they're still young enough that the trouble hasn't been too major yet. I suppose there will come a day when getting away scot-free might be worth the gamble. lol

I also think sleepwalking could be a possibility (and not just limited to your nephew. It may be anyone in the house!). My oldest is a sleepwalker and occasionally has night terrors. She can talk and and function, but she has no awareness of what's really going on. Occasionally, she has thought she was in the bathroom and has tried to go in the living room. I am a night owl so I have witnessed many, many episodes. Also, it comes and goes so she may go months without an episode.

I also think sleepwalking could be a possibility (and not just limited to your nephew. It may be anyone in the house!). My oldest is a sleepwalker and occasionally has night terrors. She can talk and and function, but she has no awareness of what's really going on. Occasionally, she has thought she was in the bathroom and has tried to go in the living room. I am a night owl so I have witnessed many, many episodes. Also, it comes and goes so she may go months without an episode.

My sister did that - but Dad was in the arm chair (she told him to move over) he grabbed her up got her to the bathroom in time. For a long time Mom thought we were awake and doing these things as pranks. That was the first episode she witnessed - she became a believer.

Couple of parents did 'sleep walking diaries and found that the kids slept walked more on allergy or cold/flu meds. Mom pointed out that they might have been more aware of the sleepwalking at those times, because parents only half sleep when kids are sick. That meant they were more likely to woken up by the sleepwalker than other times when the parents slept soundly.

When I was around 10, I was at my aunts house, and I found her contact lens case in the bathroom. I, of course, knew better than to play with it, but I was so intrigued I opened the case and one fell out. When my aunt came later and was looking for them, I knew I would get in trouble, so I lied and said I didn't know what happened to them. It was obviously me.... as the only other people in the house were my teenage cousin and the cat, but I steadfastly stood by my denial.

I had something happen to me, one year, at my grandparent's house, when we were there for Christmas. I still remember it, even though its been 25+ years. My parents and I had flown from the east coast to the west, where dad was from, to spend Christmas with his family, who all lived there. We stayed with my grandparents, and the rest of the family was in and out. Grandma didn't have a dishwasher, so I was doing the dishes one day, and had taken my rings off, and put them on teh kitchen table. Including my very nice, rather pricy, college ring. The table was IN the same room, and it was small, so I didn't think anything of it.

I finished the dishes, and went to put my rings back on, maybe 10 minutes later, and all were there, except for my college ring. We looked high and low, pulled the appliances out, dumped the garbage, etc. but it was nowhere to be found. I KNOW someone had to have taken it, but I didn't know who. And all we could do is ask if anyone had seen it. Yes, it was partially my fault for leaving them there, but I still find it interesting all but that one were still there. To this day, it has never surfaced, even when my dad and his siblings cleaned out the house after my grandparents were gone.

I also think sleepwalking could be a possibility (and not just limited to your nephew. It may be anyone in the house!). My oldest is a sleepwalker and occasionally has night terrors. She can talk and and function, but she has no awareness of what's really going on. Occasionally, she has thought she was in the bathroom and has tried to go in the living room. I am a night owl so I have witnessed many, many episodes. Also, it comes and goes so she may go months without an episode.

I also think sleepwalking could be a possibility (and not just limited to your nephew. It may be anyone in the house!). My oldest is a sleepwalker and occasionally has night terrors. She can talk and and function, but she has no awareness of what's really going on. Occasionally, she has thought she was in the bathroom and has tried to go in the living room. I am a night owl so I have witnessed many, many episodes. Also, it comes and goes so she may go months without an episode.

My sister did that - but Dad was in the arm chair (she told him to move over) he grabbed her up got her to the bathroom in time. For a long time Mom thought we were awake and doing these things as pranks. That was the first episode she witnessed - she became a believer.

Couple of parents did 'sleep walking diaries and found that the kids slept walked more on allergy or cold/flu meds. Mom pointed out that they might have been more aware of the sleepwalking at those times, because parents only half sleep when kids are sick. That meant they were more likely to woken up by the sleepwalker than other times when the parents slept soundly.

I'm not sure if this is evidence or not but one of the other things I found (which is REALLY odd) was the dog or cat vomit that I found on my floor near the scribbles on the edge of the countertop had some of my liquid hand soap in/on it! I'm looking at it like "seriously??!" The dispenser was in its usual spot beside my kitchen sink.

Even as far as pranks would go, this just make zero sense to me...unless of course someone thought it would be funny to feed liquid hand soap to one of my animals which then caused them to vomit...?

Edited to add:I swear I am not making any of this up. In fact I took pictures to show my family as I was sure no one would believe me, lol!!

I'm not sure if this is evidence or not but one of the other things I found (which is REALLY odd) was the dog or cat vomit that I found on my floor near the scribbles on the edge of the countertop had some of my liquid hand soap in/on it! I'm looking at it like "seriously??!" The dispenser was in its usual spot beside my kitchen sink.

Even as far as pranks would go, this just make zero sense to me...unless of course someone thought it would be funny to feed liquid hand soap to one of my animals which then caused them to vomit...?

That part doesn't say "prank" to me, it says "pet horked and then kid misguidedly tried to clean it up," and by "clean" I mean "dump some soap on it and hope someone else takes care of it."